Google Home Recognizes Users' Voices

Paul Rubens - April 21, 2017 - 10:28 AM

Google Home now supports up to six different users, thanks to built-in voice recognition.

(CCM) — Google Home intelligent speakers can now recognize the people who are talking and react accordingly, Google has announced. Starting today, up to six people can connect their Google accounts to a single Google Home device. When one of them asks for their schedule or commute time, it can then provide the information relevant to that person. It also allows a Google Home device to play music from playlists set up by whoever requests them.

To take advantage of the multi-user capabilities, each user has to first enroll themselves by saying the phrases "OK Google" and "Hey Google" twice. "Those phrases are then analyzed by a neural network, which can detect certain characteristics of a person's voice," explained Yury Pinsky, the product manager for Google Assistant. "From that point on, any time you say "OK Google" or "Hey Google" to your Google Home device, the neural network will compare the sound of your voice to its previous analysis so it can understand if it's you speaking or not." The voice recognition process takes a matter of milliseconds and is carried out on the Google Home device, he added.

The multi-user feature has begun rolling out in the U.S. and will expand to the U.K. in the coming months, the company said.